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By Racquel Palmese

Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, worked in Louisiana’s petrochemical industry for more than 20 years, as a union member advocating for worker safety and job quality. He saw first-hand how the production of gasoline, rocket fuel and plastics caused pollution that impacted local communities, whose residents were primarily poor minorities. In 1996, he was elected to serve on the National Wildlife Federation board of directors and, in 2005, he became the Chair of the board. In so doing, he also became the first African-American to head a major conservation organization.

In an interview with Green Technology, he details his thoughts on the importance of community colleges in the emergence of the new green economy. He will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Green California Community Colleges Summit, taking place in Pasadena from October 6-8.

What is your role as president of the Apollo Alliance?

My job at Apollo is mainly to act as the Pied Piper, to get the message out about the importance of public and private investment in the green movement and its three-fold benefits:  First, to stimulate the American economy through difficult economic times. Second, to promote research and development of alternative energy and to reduce our use of fossil fuels. This will reduce our impact on global warming. Third, to bring our energy production home, back to the USA.

We have lost a tremendous number of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries, and we've got to bring those jobs back to America, to stimulate our economy, and declare energy independence from foreign energy sources.

Has the definition of “green jobs” been changing for you as the field grows? How would you describe a green job?

I've heard a thousand definitions, but I believe that a green job is any job that contributes to the development of alternative energy technologies or is designed to improve the environment. Whether that is a job in the conservation field, in the technology field, in the education field, or what have you, I think overall these jobs deal with creating a better quality of life for all people that inhabit the earth.

Green jobs are not just jobs that will be created, but also jobs that exist that can be expanded. Buildings consume 39 percent of the energy used in the U.S. If we can figure out ways to make those buildings more energy efficient, it will create jobs in getting them to that efficient level. It will also decrease the amount of stress that we're putting on power companies to supply our energy needs.

You have said there will be millions of green jobs. Has that expectation leveled off? 

I think we are looking at millions of jobs. My biggest concern is that we will have more jobs than people trained to do them. That's why we really have to make a serious public investment into community college systems.

President Obama has made a commitment to invest quite a bit of money into education - $100 billion is going toward green; $5.2 billion is going towards weatherization of homes. A huge part of that $5.2 billion will go towards training people to do household energy audits. Training for this job can take place at community colleges. But there must be money set aside that will guarantee that the community colleges have the money necessary to hire the instructors and to bring the message to the students that are involved.

The stimulus package is not going to save America. The stimulus package is only a down payment. It’s just what it says, it’s a stimulus. It is designed to generate a level of investment around the country that hopefully can be sustainable into the future. Stimulus is designed to get us moving in the right direction. Once we make that investment into the community college system, we believe that the private sector will get onboard and then more investment will be made into training the next generation to do those green jobs.

You worked in the petrochemical industry for a couple of decades. How is that industry being affected as we move over to alternative energy?

It's critically important that the oil and gas industries convert to the green movement, and many have at this point. For example, British Petroleum, which is the fourth largest oil company in the world, is now the largest producer of solar panels in the world. Companies that have been in the oil and gas business recognize  that there's profit in green, and there are also environmental benefits in green. T Boone Pickens, who has spent his life in the oil and gas industry, has now invested $10 billion of his own money to build the largest wind farm in the world. He's going green. People are recognizing the economic and social benefits of green and are anxiously moving in that direction.

How does the Apollo Alliance work with the private sector?

We are a coalition that involves everyone who is interested in going green - businesses, industry, labor organizations. Anyone who wants to contribute to a reduction of the cost of energy, to producing energy in a clean and sustainable manner, we want them to be part of the Apollo plan and the Apollo coalition. That includes industry, of course.

If the private sector sees the value of investing in green and sees that there can be a monetary return on their investment then there will be more reason for them to invest. But we can't continue to lose jobs overseas because overseas employers pay less wages. We have to create opportunities through tax breaks and incentives for businesses that will encourage companies to not move overseas and help them help the American people go back to work again.

This is especially true for California, which is a state that's really suffering financially. We have to invest  money into the community college system and make it a huge part of the secondary education program to get that next generation ready to do those jobs.

What are you most proud of that you've accomplished so far with Apollo?

I guess what I'm most proud of is that I helped frame the message for the last presidential debate. Four years ago the primary political discussion was the war in Iraq and the economy. Very few people at the federal level were talking about the possibilities of green technology, especially with respect to economic stimulation. As a result of Apollo and my work spreading that message around the country, green is now a very common discussion. It’s discussed in every board room across America and is recognized as an economic stimulator and a way to generate – and save – money by both the private and public sector. So I'm most proud of the fact that I helped frame the message.

What’s the best way to spread the message further?

I think the most effective way of doing that is putting a face on the message, making the message comfortable to the average person to understand. The average person has to feel the value of their involvement. People don't get involved in things if they don’t feel there’s any value in it, but if you explain to them why there is an economic benefit to them of going green, why there is a social benefit to them going green, then it makes it easier for them to want to be involved. If people don't recognize the value, why should they be involved?

What’s the most important message right now?

The most important thing is that the American people have to have patience. We didn't get to this place in a day, and we're not going to fix it in a day. It's going to require a belief in the Administration, a belief in the whole idea of green, and most of all a belief in the opportunities that stand before us. We need to believe that yes, we can re-establish American manufacturing. But it's going to require patience.

It's going to require people recognizing that there are advantages to green investment. Eventually we will bring jobs back to the U.S. and start stimulating economies like California.

If there's anything that we're not doing that we ought to be doing now it’s having more patience, more patience, more patience. We are headed in the right direction.

How important are community colleges to the emerging green economy?

We're going to have to train the next generation to do the green jobs, and we're going to have to build the American economy from neighborhoods up, from the grassroots level. There is no better way to connect and train people within a community than by using education resources that exist within the community.

The community college system plays a greater role than even the larger university system, in that it affects the lives of people on a very personal level and within their communities.

If you don't have a solid foundation at the bottom, you're not going to be effective. You have to have mechanisms within communities that can deliver the message. If you don't have adequate mechanisms – such as labor organizations to do the training and community colleges to do the educating – then you’re not going to move the agenda forward.

I don't think the overall success of the movement is possible without the community college system's involvement.

California community colleges are the largest higher education system in the country. Are the programs developed here likely to serve as models?

Yes, in a big way, because California has set precedent with respect to green. California has one of the strongest green movements in the country.
This has a lot to do with why Apollo Alliance moved its headquarters from Washington, DC to San Francisco. We believe that California is ahead of the curve. It's a flagship.

We’ve got to develop some success stories in California, knowing that this will magnify itself throughout the rest of the country. Success in California will generate success across the country. Failure in California would generate failure across the country.

It's critically important to us that we are successful in engaging the community college system, engaging labor, engaging the common individual, the business community, the government and non-government into an overall successful effort of stimulating the California - and American - economy through green technology.

You'll have a chance to deliver this message to community college leaders at the Green California Community College Summit in October. In the meantime, what would you say to them?

It's difficult to encourage communities to go green if the community colleges are not going green themselves. I think that the overall effort to go green must happen from within. Community colleges must do everything they can within their campuses to get everyone – students and staff - to embrace the idea of green and to recognize the value of green investment.

My message to the community colleges is, “lead by example.”

Thank you!

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